Sunday, February 3, 2013

Conan the Barbarian #12: The Death: Part 3

Conan faces foes like he’s never faced in the past 100
issues of Dark Horse’s Conan. Given the barbarian’s rogue gallery, such sinister
villainy would seem to strain imaginations, yet Brian Wood takes familiar material in the barbarian's mythos and bends it in a new ways. He makes
it look obvious and easy. This current issue evokes “I could have thought of
and done that” from readers; except we can’t. Only Wood’s unique voice can sing
this song of Conan; which is fine, because the rest of us get to listen.

Conan’s new challengers still lurk in the technological
laden 21st century; self-doubt, illness, helplessness at watching
the suffering of a loved one. The creative team (Brian Wood, Declan Shalvey, and
Dave Stewart on script, art, and colors, respectively) depicts this helpless
inaction with some tension and spear throwing to propel the action of the
issue.

The pace Wood sets in the 12th issue of his 25
issue run in the port of Bakal sine curves from inaction, to violent action, to
debilitated inaction again. In parts one and two of “The Death,” the crew of
the Tigress contracted a deadly fever
and Conan set out to find a cure. Bêlit numbered among the ill and instructed
Conan to leave them while he still possessed his health. Issue 11 ended with
Conan trying to decide whether he’d follow Bêlit’s orders. Issue 12 opens with
Conan in a tavern, having decided to stay, drinking breakfast and finding some
medical help for the crew.

Conan’s immobile brooding drinking soon leads to violent
action that raises the apex of the sine curve with some distracting
bloodletting as Conan and N’Gora defend their ship against a meager mob.

After the fight, N’gora informs Conan that Bêlit’s screams
have been continuous throughout their entire battle on the dock. These howls Wood
describes as “It was not the scream of a dying person, but rather the agonized
despair of someone in pain with no hope of the release of death.” And having run to the threshold of Bêlit’s room, the
narrator says of Conan “He would follow Bêlit to the ends of the earth…but he
could not will himself to enter that room.”

This immobility of Conan depicts the helplessness one
experiences during the suffering of loved ones. No matter the amount of love, skills,
power, and prowess one possesses, it’s useless to the suffering one. Physical
pain, perhaps all the more terrible for it, isolates and ultimately must be
endured alone.

Wood and Shalvey’s tale captures and heightens this
helplessness and isolation with the two-page spread of Conan sitting against Bêlit’s
cabin door—all of the space and Conan is alone (except for a dead rat in the
lover left hand corner) impotent and waiting. His sword is discarded, tossed on
the deck for the useless item it is in this situation. The point of the
bloodied blade (symbolic of the dire future for Bêlit?) points at the She-pirate’s
door. Conan remains a diminutive slumped figure against a large background, again
sitting immobile, waiting amidst Bêlit’s pain-filled shrieks.No words are given—none are needed here. Both
speech and action remain useless as balms for Bêlit.

Bêlit lives, but that doesn’t end the helplessness of Conan.
After learning that Bêlit was two months pregnant and that she lost the baby,
the captain of the Tigress doesn’t
speak. Conan is unsure of the cause, and is again at a loss for how to aid and
comfort his companion.

The final three pages of this issue greatly enhance the mood
of helplessness. The colors are muted grays and oranges and blacks in depicting
a lone ship upon the sea. In the seven panels on pages 20 and 21 where Conan
sits in Bêlit’s bed chamber, four of the panels show only one of the couple,
alone, which adds to the isolation. Conan’s head always tilts down, and contains
heavy shadows. In the three panels where Conan and Bêlit share the space, they
are not looking at one another. Bêlit has her head turned away from the
barbarian, and after Conan speaks the words, “…Bêlit. Why will you not speak to
me?,” Bêlit turns her back to the barbarian. Conan is left helpless and at a
loss of how to remedy the situation. The suffering aftermath of the pain Bêlit endures
alone, leaving Conan to battle silence, speculation, and doubt alone upon the
deck of the Tigress.

Wood’s Conan continues as a fresh and inventive exploration
of new possibilities of Conan’s character. While Conan’s adventures still
contain high body counts, reading the confrontation of Conan considering the futility
of the sword in various situations enlarges the scope and power contained
within the character of a young man from harsh northern isolation exploring
what the world and life offers.

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Various arrangements of twenty-six signs provide me with endless fascination, enjoyment, frustration, and employment. I hope these reviews reveal something previously unnoticed in the comic and let you enjoy a good comic even more. If you're interested in what else is going on, check out ‏ @Sthdmrn